Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1960)

VOL. 16: No. 4 9 Syndication Coups for NT A; A group of 30 post-1948 movies has been bought by NTA from Regal Films (independent producer Robert L. Lippert) for $1.8 million, despite the current wrangle between talent guilds and film producers. NTA’s unexpected move was made possible by a Regal-SAG contract, written at the time the low-budget features were made, which calls for actors to get 15% of original compensation as TV residual payment. The actors will benefit by more than $95,000 from the deal, and the directors also will get a share. However, the films’ writers won’t, because WGA turned down Regal’s formula for payment. Regal Films Pres. Edmund J. Baumgarten recently asked SAG to waive payments for TV rights to those movies which haven’t yet recouped their production costs, but the Guild rejected the request. The Regal Films were produced under an arrangement with 20th Century-Fox which distributed the movies. They were made between 1956 & 1958, and some are still in theatrical release. NTA intends to feed the package into syndication sales channels. NTA also has been offered post-1948s from some of the major studios, but no negotiations have begun as yet. Also being discussed at NTA is multi-market spot placement of Play of the Week, rescued from last-minute oblivion this month by Standard (N.J.) Oil Co. (Vol. 16:3 pl4), which may enable the 120-min. taped show to operate, at least, at a “modest profit,” and to be sold elsewhere. Another feather in NTA’s sales cap: After nearly 2 years of sales effort, NTA has a N.Y. outlet (WABC-TV, starting Jan. 30, 10-10:30 p.m.) and a N.Y. sponsor (Hudson Pulp & Paper) for its How to Marry a Millionaire. Four Star’s 16 Pilots: Four star Television is projecting a record 16 pilots, one of which already has been sold. That’s the tentatively titled Tom Ewell Show, which CBSTV snapped up for next season immediately after seeing the pilot. Westerns are the most popular fare on Four Star’s pilot program, 8 being planned. Some projects are co-production deals — with networks or other companies. Four Star’s plans include an untitled comedy starring Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy; an untitled comedy starring Gertrude Berg; a 60-min. pilot of Michael Shayne for NBC-TV; remake of a pilot done last year by Bing Crosby Productions, The Law and Mr. Jones, starring James Whitmore. The company also — in association with the production combine of Arthur Gardner, Arnold Laven and Jules Levy {The Rifleman) — plans 3 Westerns: Simon Battle, Lariat Jones and one still untitled. In association with producer Mike Meshekoff & Howard Duff it will pilot Willy Dante, in Dante's Inferno, starring Duff. With producer Hal Hudson & writer Luke Short’s Caprock Productions, it will pilot a Western, Yuma. With Hudson & the Zane Grey Company, it plans a Western starring Dean Jones. With producer Vincent Fennelly’s Hildegarde Productions, the company is piloting Stagecoach West, a 60-min. show for ABC-TV. Producer Aaron Spelling {Johnny Ringo) has 3 pilots he plans in association with Four Star: 2 Westerns, Border Town and The Reno Brothers, and Tales of the Unknown, an anthology dealing with the supernatural. Another pilot being made by Four Star is “J.P.,” an action -adventure series being produced with Vincent Fennelly for ABC-TV. TV-radio center to consolidate CBC’s 11 scattered facilities in Toronto has been initiated with the purchase of a 33-acre site. No date has been set for construction. ITC-ATV’s 1960 Plans: A major revamp of Independent Television Corp.Associated Television Ltd. organization is in the works. ITC, the telefilm company jointly owned by Jack Wrather & Britain’s commercial program supplier ATV Ltd., will soon revert to its original status as a distributor of filmed & taped TV shows. A Wrather Hollywood production unit, ATV and independent telefilm producers will act as the ITC program source, and all production duplication will be eliminated. ITC is extremely interested in strengthening itself through mergers or acquisitions, we’re informed by Wrather, but he scotched trade reports that he is negotiating for a studio as a production base. “We looked into the Desilu situation when it became known it was for sale,” he said. “However, we decided it was not wise to buy at this time. We are analyzing the industry situation because our object is to make ITC as strong as possible. We feel there are certain companies with which we have a mutuality of interests. Our desire is to increase our size through merger or acquisition. There is no room for small or intermediate companies in this business.” Wrather said he’d had conversations with Columbia Pictures Pres. Abe Schneider, “an old friend.” Co-production of ITC-ATV series with Columbia’s Screen Gems was discussed, among other subjects, but Wrather declined to elaborate. Merger was not one of the subjects, he said. ITC reportedly will drop its own production unit in Hollywood, headed by Ted Rogers, which has planned several telefilm series and supervises production of taped Ding Dong School, now in syndication. The latter show, and other ITC-syndicated properties {Four Just Men, Sweet Success, etc.), will continue in production & sales. However, Gale Storm Show on ABC-TV is being dropped. More Production In Britain Much production emphasis in the revised ITC-ATV structure will be shifted to London, where ex-CBS Films vp Leslie Harris, now managing dir. of ITC international production, is supervising several new projects. Tapeequipped (U.S. standard) ATV is currently handling onlocation TV recording of shows in CBS-TV’s Person to Person series, and plans a number of location-taped specials of its own in Europe and the Far East. Included in this group of projects is a Playhouse 90 special starring Laurence Harvey & Simone Signoret which would be the first U.S. dramatic TV show to be taped overseas. Also planned are taped specials ranging from Covent Garden opera productions in London to an outdoor water festival in Australia. ATV, now taking a more active role on the international telefilm front as well as in the tape field, is mapping new film specials & series. ATV deputy managing dir. Lew Grade & production executive Val Parnell (who is also managing dir. of the London Palladium) along with ITC’s Harris, are currently concluding a U.S. visit during which they’ve discussed co-production film deals with U.S. networks & movie majors. Two new telefilm series, TFMplash (filmed in Australia) and Danger Man (filmed in Europe), exist in pilot form, and are being shown to potential buyers as possible mid-season replacements or fall program purchases. Production chief Harris envisions telefilm production moving toward a more international level in 1960. “There are really only 4 film centers that can act as a production base for a 39-week telefilm series — Hollywood, N.Y., London & Sydney,” he told us in N.Y. last week. “Among these, our own ATV-ITC production plans call for a slightly heavier balance of production of film & tape shows outside the U.S. than in it.”